In recent months, the BAA's Website Operations Team has been looking
for ways to build a greater sense of online community within the
Association. After a busy summer's work, we are excited to announce
the launch of "BAA Member Pages"
<https://britastro.org/member_profiles>.

These are the latest addition to the Community section of the
Association's website and allow you to upload and showcase your
observations. Whether you observe with the naked eye, or using
equipment, this is a place where you can share your work with others.
You can put up anything that relates to your enjoyment of astronomy -
from historical photographs to images of your own equipment; sketches
of Mars to light curves of variable stars. You can even add a few
lines of text to narrate a specific observation, or a summary of a
whole observing session. All we ask is that you don't upload other
people's work without their permission.

We want to encourage all members to feel part of the BAA community,
whatever their experience level. So, whether you are just starting
out, or have been observing for a life-time, please do share your
work. Once you've uploaded your observations, you can share links to
them on your own website or blog, or on Facebook or Twitter.

It is very easy to start uploading your observations: simply visit
<https://britastro.org/profile> and click on "Upload image" or "Quick
post". You will need to be logged into the website to create and
update your members page. If you are already a BAA member but do not
have a BAA website account, you can register here:
<https://britastro.org/user/register>. You will find your membership
number alongside your name on the address sheet of the Journal, or
otherwise please contact the BAA Office for assistance. If you have
any questions about the process the Website News and Help section of
our online forum is a good place to find help.

BAA Member Pages are accessible to anyone else who visits the BAA's
website, not just to BAA members. We therefore suggest that you do not
reveal personal information on your profile, such as your exact
location or personal contact details.

We still request members to submit observations to the relevant BAA
Section Directors, to ensure that they can be properly analysed and
archived. Each member will have a finite amount of space for their
Member Page – currently set at 200MB – and we have also adopted a
limit of 2MB per upload which mirrors that on the BAA's Forum. Members
will be permitted to upload 10 observations per day in the first
instance.

The BAA's website is still evolving and we would value your feedback
on the services we provide. The Website News and Help area of our
online forum is a good place to share your thoughts or to ask
questions.

We look forward to seeing your observations, and to seeing and sharing
the great work which is being undertaken by the BAA community.

Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)

Ricardo Hueso has sent details of the updated PVOL data base as described below
Regards
Mike Foulkes

*********************
Dear all,

I am very glad to write that today we are releasing the second version of our database of amateur observations of Solar System planets: PVOL (Planetary Virtual Observatory and Laboratory). The new database is PVOL2: Planetary Virtual Observatory and Laboratory and substitutes the former database of the International Outer Planets Watch (PVOL). PVOL2 is aimed to contain all previous data in the PVOL database (images of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) and new images from these planets and others (specially Venus).

Data from Mercury, Mars and Venus is still scarce in the database and we will upload images of previous years over the following months after specific calls to amateur observers. The current database contains more than 23000 images of Jupiter, 7000 images of Saturn, 340 images of Uranus and 180 images of Neptune. Jupiter data is available since 2010 and we plan to incorporate more data of past years (as well as Mercury, Venus and Mars) in "calls" to the amateur community in the next few weeks.

PVOL is compatible with professional databases currently under development and is fully searchable through its own interface. In the near future it will be also available through the VESPA (Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access) portal (http://vespa.obspm.fr/planetary).

Amateur astronomers can send new observations to the following e-mail address: pvol@ehu.eus

We sincerely thank you for your collaboration making your observations available to the scientific community. You will see that much of this data is actually used for scientific research in the "Publications from PVOL data" tab by different research groups internationally. Note that researchers may use your data for their particular research field but individual observers retain all the copyrights of their images (see the copyright statement in the footer of the webpage).

You can search planetary images in the PVOL2 website in the "Search data" tab. Note that many searchable parameters can be incorporated and you may play with the search options proposing many different combinations, including selection of only maps or animations, or images by a single individual observer or observations in a given time-frame, or the latest additions to the database. The new "Feature" option works only on tagged images which are currently only a few, but will be improved in the near future and tagged by volunteers after a specific call for collaborators. Besides downloading individual images, you will be able to download large amounts of images (up to 100) in a single zip file.

In a few weeks we will start to give some observers permission to upload their images but for the moment all image submissions will be through e-mail: pvol@ehu.eus

The former webpage of the IOPW PVOL database will still be online but it will no longer be updated.

How to contribute? Please send us your current observations of solar system planets (including Mars, Venus and Mercury) in image files with information on the acquisition time. In the next few weeks we will make specific "calls" to amateur astronomers to send images of solar system planets obtained over the past but for the moment we are starting slowly since each image has to be uploaded individually by one of us.

Gradual release: We are expecting that some observers may play with the database at a much higher rate in the first hours of this release than any time in the past 10 years. We are planning a gradual release of the PVOL2 service. You are kindly invited to use the system but please do not publish news on social media about PVOL2 in the next few hours to avoid too many simultaneous connections to the server from a large list of potential users. This particular e-mail is only sent to British amateur astronomers and I would feel grateful if the BAA could diffuse this information over the day. We will also be very glad to share links and notes concerning the Jupiter activity reports compiled by John Rogers at the BAA in the new "Reports" tab.

Acknowledgements: PVOL 2 has been made possible by Europlanet 2020 RI, which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654208 and is hosted at the University of the Basque Country in Spain. This work has been made possibly by the programming efforts of Jon Juaristi Campillo, hired under a Europlanet-2020 RI contract at the Planetary Sciences Group in the University of the Basque Country (Spain).

Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)

Sunday, 7 August 2016

BAA electronic bulletin ====================================================================== As highlighted in the August Journal's "From the President" spot by Jeremy Shears, I would also like to draw your attention to two asteroid-related meetings, which are now rapidly approaching:

The first will be in a little under two week's time, namely the European Symposium on Occultation Projects (ESOP, see http://www.esop35.uk/ ), which begins on the evening of Friday, August 19 and runs to Tuesday, August 23: the last two days comprising post-conference trips for delegates. BAA members not yet registered are very welcome to join the Saturday and/or Sunday sessions. The venue is the University of Surrey, Guildford. The topics will be very varied including lunar/asteroid occultations, observing opportunities made possible by the GAIA mission, hardware and software for timing and image capture, as well as demos and tutorials with some contributions from afar via Skype. Please contact the ARPS Director by e-mail (address below) if you would like more details of the programme, or if you wish to attend at short notice.

The second is the Asteroids and Remote Planets Workshop, free to BAA members, which will take place on Saturday, September 24 at Burlington House, Piccadilly and details of which have also been featured in the current Journal (p.258) - see also https://britastro.org/node/7189 . There will be lots of practical topics covered on the day, including some which overlap with techniques used in the study of comets. Attendees are welcome to contribute by way of a short talk, or by participation in discussions. Please note that, if you are planning to attend, you will need to first book by contacting the BAA Office on 020 7734 4145 or office[at]britastro.org - Please book early so as to confirm your place. Thank you.

Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)

Friday, 29 July 2016

BAA electronic bulletin ====================================================================== August Journal now available on the website

Selections from the 2016 August Journal are now available on the BAA website at www.britastro.org/jbaa2016aug. To read the complete articles, or to download a PDF of the whole Journal, you must log in as a member (top right of screen). If you haven't yet registered for full online access (or have forgotten your sign-in details) click on 'Register for online access' and enter your details there.

Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)

Although a bright(ish) new nova has been discovered in Scorpio it is well to the south and sadly not visible from the UK. However, for those of you with access to telescopes in the southern hemisphere you are encouraged to have a go at it.

It was discovered by Hideo Nishimura, Shizuoka-ken of Japan on 2016 June 10.63UT at magnitude 12.4 using a 200-m

Apparently, nothing was visible at this location on an image of 2016 May 14.71UT, May 18.61UT or June 5.53UT to a limiting magnitude of 13.0.

A mag 11.8, pre-discovery image has been found by T. Kojima, Gunma-ken, Japan, on three frames using 135-mm lens + Canon EOS 6D digital camera, who also advise nothing was visible at this location on two patrol frames (Limiting mag.= 13) taken on 2016 June 5.582 UT.

K. Ayani, Bisei Astronomical Observatory (BAO) obtained a low-dispersion spectrogram (resolution 0.5 nm, range 400-800 nm) of this PNV with the BAO 1.01-m telescope. It has a prominent and broad H-alpha emission line (FWHM about 1800 km/s, equivalent width about 23 nm) and a broad H-beta emission line, which shows that the PNV is a nova in early phase.

As always, you should report your observations to the BAAVSS and if you are unsure how to do that then please contact the Director.

Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)

Saturday, 4 June 2016

Noctilucent Cloud season begins. NLC has been seen as far south as Northern England(1/2 June 2016) and could be visible further south. Look north about an hour after sunset to see bright electric blue clouds that look like patterns in the sand. They are quite bright so can be seen even in strong moonlight or heavy light pollution. Any reports would be welcome to sandra-b@hotmail.co.uk

Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)

Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)

Bob Mizon (Commission for Dark Skies) is seeking images of dark night
skies over Dedham Vale (Essex/Suffolk border). This is to help the
local Dedham Vale Society in its proposed protected dark sky
designation within the IDA scheme.

Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)

Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)

Friday, 13 May 2016

We have prepared the following new chart for our homepage: 252P/LINEAR: - a 3.0x4.0 degrees chart for the period 12 -27 May 2016 This new chart is now available in the charts section of our mainpage at:http://www.shopplaza.nl/astro Reinder Bouma/Edwin van Dijk

Real Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)

Astrocomet

I started in Astronomy in 1997 when the Comet Hale Bopp got me interested in Astronomy and Skywatching, since then I have joined Lyra and have vastly improved my knowledge of this very rewarding science.